MADISON, WISCONSIN—On the east lawn of the capitol here, the place where 100,000 people showed up in 2011 to protest the Talibanish destruction of their state's political identity by Governor Scott Walker, there stands a statue to a gentleman named Hans Christian Heg, who died in the Civil War as the colonel of the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer infantry. Heg was quite a guy. He was born in Norway. His family moved to Wisconsin in 1840. Hans was a gifted student despite learning English on the fly, and he rose in state politics, especially in the tumultuous 1850s as the country was preparing to hurl itself into an abyss. Heg was a Free Soiler, and he was one of the most prominent of the state's "Wide Awakes," informal abolitionist militias formed around the country to protect the candidates of the newborn Republican party, and to support the party, which had been formed in Ripon in 1854.

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Heg rose to become Wisconsin's commissioner of prisons and he became a crucial figure in the fight against enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law in the state. When an abolitionist editor named Sherman Booth praised a jailbreak that had freed a captured slave named Joshua Glover, Booth was hauled into federal court. The case dragged on and, at one point, while on the lam, Booth was sheltered by Commissioner Heg.

When war broke out, Heg joined up immediately and he sent out a call to "all young Norsemen" to join him because, "the government of our adopted country is in danger. It is our duty as brave and intelligent citizens to extend our hands in defense of the cause of our Country and of our homes." The 15th Wisconsin was made up almost entirely of Scandinavian immigrants. Heg led the 15th Wisconsin through several battles in the western theater of the war. On September 19, 1863, Heg was killed rallying the regiment on the field at Chickamauga.

Heg and his men arrived on the right of the Union line around noon on September 19, 1863. After advancing a short way they were met with a volley from Rebels concealed in heavy woods. They held their ground, "cheered on by the gallant Colonel Heg, who was everywhere present, careless of danger." Several times they were forced to fall back, then reformed and advanced. Then between 4 and 5 p.m. Hood's Texans attacked, and his six Confederate brigades overwhelmed the Union three. Heg was mortally wounded in the attack; 696 of the 1,218 of his men who had gone into battle were killed, wounded or missing, a casualty rate of more than 50%.

In 1920, the Norwegian-American citizens of Wisconsin raised $25,000 to erect a statue to Hans Christian Heg. Four years later, with the four surviving members of the 15th Wisconsin Regiment in attendance, they unveiled the statue which, 97 years later, became the rallying point for hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites gathered to try to preserve the history for which Heg had fought. And on Monday, a few blocks from the capitol, while shilling for Ted Cruz in a huge Masonic Temple, Scott Walker, the governor against whom these protests were lodged, said that he was supporting Cruz at least in part because…

Ted Cruz believes that the power should go back to the states, the way the Founders wanted it to work.

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It hardly needs to be pointed out that Hans Christian Heg died because he believed that was no way to run a democratic republic.

Cruz is in a serious sprint here. If he wins with a substantial enough margin, he can virtually assure that the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer will be a contested one. It is now clear that the three remaining Republican campaigns have developed distinctly individual characteristics that they will carry with them until someone—anyone!—finally gets nominated. Trump is the candidate of the renegades and the outsiders. Through the process of elimination, John Kasich is the candidate of what is laughingly called the Republican "establishment." And Tailgunner Ted Cruz is the candidate of The Bubble. He is the walking symbol of epistemic closure. He is the candidate you vote for to validate all the hours you spent watching the Fox News Channel and listening to the talk radio people, blissfully unaware of the inherent contradictions within and the fundamental absurdity of what you're being sold. Cruz brags now that his campaign is unifying the Republican Party. "Five of the other candidates who ran against me are now supporting me," he said. "All the way from them to Mike Lee and Mark Levin, we've got the whole spectrum of Republican politics." Can't argue with that. The whole spectrum, all the way from A to Aa.

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The town hall in the Masonic Temple was a hootenanny organized by Fox News and hosted by Megyn Kelly. She and Cruz sat in the middle of a vast hall lined with bruised woodwork and illuminated by dusty chandeliers. The very first question came from a woman who described herself as a "pro-choice Republican," and she asked Cruz about whether or not he might be "too extreme" on the issue of choice. This, of course, is in the context of He, Trump's alleged "gaffe" in which he talked about "punishing" women who have abortions in his outside voice, instead of the inside voice that Republican candidates are supposed to use. Cruz proceeded to take the answer all around Robin Hood's barn.

The issue has been an issue that has torn the country apart for many, many decades. And my view is that I am pro-life. I believe that we should protect every life from the moment of conception. (Applause.)I will say there is more and more consensus on this issue as we see people coming together on this issue to bar extreme practices like partial-birth abortion, a large consensus of American people saying, 'This practice is gruesome and barbaric.' It is my hope that we see people's hearts and minds change, but it's going to take time to see people's hearts and minds change. If you're going to change a major issue of public policy, the way you do it is at the ballot box. My whole life I've been a passionate defender of the Constitution and I think judicial activism is wrong. (More applause, but not from the shade of John Marshall who, I would point out, was a Grand Master of Masons.) One of the worst things about the Supreme Court in 1972 is that it took it out of the hands of the and the control of the people. It said that five unelected judges would decide this issue, not 330 million American people. I believe under our Constitution that we have a democratic society and if you want to pass legislation limiting or expanding abortion, the way to do that is to convince your fellow citizens to make the case at the ballot box … I think all of us would agree that it's a much better system to have important public policy decisions decided at the ballot box rather than five unelected lawyers imposing their views on everybody else.

Kelly then asked him if he considered Roe v. Wade to be settled law, and we were off again.

No, and I think it was a classic example of activism…There's a great deal you can do. One of the things you can do is reimpose what are called the Mexico City Rules that Ronald Reagan put in place that prohibited taxpayer money from funding abortions overseas and here at home. (Applause again, although taxpayer money does not go to fund abortions in this country.)

Kelly, bless her heart, then jumped in with the Trump quotes from last week, and Cruz disappeared over the far horizon.

That statement made by Donald Trump really illustrates …that bizarre statement that women should be punished. It shows that he's not considered seriously this issue or any other issue. It illustrates that he's really willing to say anything in order to win votes. (Tell us, Tailgunner, what votes could he possibly be trying to gather by saying women should be punished if abortion is illegal? I suspect they won't be from Planned Parenthood.)Part of being pro-life is believing there is value in all human life, for the unborn child but also to the mom…mother. I see many times the victims of abortions are not just the unborn children, who are never given a chance to live, but it's the moms (Interrupted by wild applause. This is, of course, a crock.)A great many women have suffered because of the tragedy of abortion. We should be celebrating all life. It's interesting, I thought one of the most insightful observations on this came from Jonah Goldberg at National Review…

When it comes to rape, I've spent a lot of years in law enforcement. I was solicitor-general of the state of Texas. I handled cases of horrific cases of rape. I went before the Supreme Court and argued in defense of state laws imposing capital punishment for the very worst child abusers. Rape is a horrific crime against the humanity of the person, and it needs to be punished severely. At the same time, as horrible as that crime is, I don't believe it is the child's fault…I don't believe it makes sense to punish the child.

Kelly followed up by asking Cruz to defend putting the woman through the trauma of having her rapist's baby. Sentence-like structures ensued.

As a practical matter, as I mentioned before, in order for any legislation to be passed, you have to convince your fellow citizens. That's the ultimate check. Before Roe v. Wade, it was a question for the states…If Roe v. Wade wasn't law, it would be up to the citizens of Wisconsin to decide if there are going to be exceptions for rape.

The really unsettling thing about this colloquy is that the people in the audience thought it made perfect sense. It is what they've heard from all of their favorite media stars for decades. To anyone else, it's a dense, impassible field of self-contradictory nonsense. Embedded in it are a fairly thoroughgoing denial of a woman's agency in her own reproductive decisions, pseudo-scientific balderdash about the "tragedy" of abortion for the woman who chooses to have one, a dollop of anti-crime tough guy palaver, and an appeal to a constitutional order that was fairly well eliminated in the aftermath of the war in which Hans Christian Heg gave his life. History's funny that way.